So on Christmas eve 2015, I had a bit of a discussion/debate with a good friend of ours who is a believer ... she genuinely desires and needs a form of Christianity/Spirituality in her life to give it foundation. Fair enough.
In this country (USA) we're afforded that freedom as a basis of our constitution - Freedom of (from) religion. It was clear from our discussion that she cherry picks the hell out of the scriptures - and that's fine too - "par for the course" I think I'd say.Thankfully she does this cherry picking because we certainly could not be friends, much less, acquaintances, were she to be a strict adherent to scripture.
This person, is intelligent, kind and an all around good, caring human being. She has a history/background in some pretty extreme sects of Xianity (JW, for one) which I gleaned from our conversation so I guess it should be no surprise that such a compassionate human would:
A. Cherry pick the scripture
B. Rationally segregate scientific reality from Spiritual beliefs
I think it safe to say that this person fully understands and rationally accepts all proven scientific facts and evidence but she simply infers a Supreme Deity at the point where the evidence hasn't gone yet (a pseudo God of the Gaps) and it's THIS that she calls Christianity ... but more importantly for her, she uses the Bible/Xianity (cherry picked to pieces) to give her life "meaning" and direction.
Fair enough again - we all have that right here in the USA.
Mulling our conversation this Christmas morning, I had a thought and wished I had expressed it last night:
"If your personalized version of religion/spirituality gives you inspiration to be compassionate, motivation to be a better more giving. loving, sharing, caring human being - that's AWESOME. And that's a version of "religion" I can at least respect in that it is truly an internal engine and personal inspiration and guide ... but the nanosecond that you use that same scripture as foundation for judgment of others and to proclaim a divinely bestowed sense of destiny/entitlement over this world and ALL beings in it - then I wholeheartedly REJECT your "religion" and will be forced to debate you at every turn"
As it was ... we parted ways after a fun filled night of holiday cheer with a better understanding of each of our positions on the question of religion - there were no ill words or fisticuffs ... and the world spins on into that silent night as if there is no god directing it - just as you'd expect based on the available evidence.
Merry Christmas to all
"A pseudo God of the Gaps".
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent expression. It's very telling and I realize that in my own way (even though I could care less about deities nowadays) I am guilty of doing the same exact same thing, if only wishing certain non-proven things to be true. Maybe I'll use this in a post of my own, if you don't mind.
Did you have a good Xmas?
My Christmas was pretty fantastic, thanks :) I hope yours was good as well. My GF got me some books I've been very excited to read Richard Dawkins', "The God Delusion" and Hitchens' "The portable Atheist" ... I was very surprised and downright giddy when I opened them. On top of that, the gifts I got for my GF went over much better than I expected considering I was expecting to have failed miserably ... so, all told, it's been a fantastic holiday where for once we didn't have to rush from engagement to engagement and could relax and enjoy family and friends over fabulous food and drink casually :)
DeleteMy sixteen year old daughter asked for The God Delusion as well and got it, and she hates to read generally, but she, without my help, has become (or reverted to being) quite the atheist.
DeleteAlice - that is simply fantastic! One can only hope their offspring will go out of their way to investigate things on their own accord and not simply "take your word for it" although I'm sure you've given your kids free reign to discover the world at their discretion and pace. All the best for the new year to you and your family - thanks for reading and contributing :)
Delete"but she simply infers a Supreme Deity at the point where the evidence hasn't gone yet"
ReplyDeleteHere's the rub: Even when the "gaps" are filled with scientific explanations, that is no reason for a person of "faith" to ditch God. No, they simply posit God as the unmoved, Prime Mover. In science, a rainbow is just the dispersion of light..i.e..a prism. Now watch this.....
The Prime Mover is the guy who disperses the light!
See how that works?
It's "faith", and it's unfalsifiable. As rational thinkers, it's actually amazing that we even listen to beliefs that are unfalsifiable. Really, now, we could just dismiss such beliefs out of hand. But alas, minds won't change that way, will they?
Of course you are correct ... it became quickly apparent that no matter what rational fact I presented of track of rational sting of thought I began and pursued to it's logical, factual conclusion, this person was determined to maintain faith and belief in the deity of choice. I quickly assessed that the discussion was less of a "debate" and/or review/assessment of the available evidence and more of a staking out of a preferred position out of desire - on her part - and me reiterating my firm position to only go as far as evidence could take me.
DeleteIt's this realization that an overt conflict of ideas needed to remain civil and respectful despite my urge to ridicule the silliness of the "leaps, bounds and spastic contortions of faith" she had to make to maintain her chosen faith/religion. At that point I was simply trying to provide gentle but factual "food for thought" that would allow her to recognize that would allow her to recognize that the spiritual "power" that she attributed to her deity was, in fact, derived from within herself and that SHE actually held all the power to do and be the person she chose to be - which is a decidedly good and honest person - without any need or recognition of any gods.
Commendable...and sometimes takes nerves of steel = /
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